Hand pressure distribution during Oldowan stone tool production

Modern humans possess a highly derived thumb that is robust and long relative to the other digits, with enhanced pollical musculature compared with extant apes. Researchers have hypothesized that this anatomy was initially selected for in early Homo in part to withstand high forces acting on the thumb during hard hammer percussion when producing stone tools. However, data are lacking on loads experienced during stone tool production and the distribution of these loads across the hand.Here we report the first quantitative data on manual normal forces (N) and pressures (kPa) acting on the hand during Oldowan stone tool production, captured at 200 Hz. Data were collected from six experienced subjects replicating Oldowan bifacial choppers. Our data do not support hypotheses asserting that the thumb experiences relatively high loads when making Oldowan stone tools. Peak normal force, pressure, impulse, and the pressure/time integral are significantly lower on the thumb than on digits 2 and/or digit 3 in every subject. Our findings call into question hypotheses linking modern human thumb robusticity specifically to load resistance during stone tool production.     

The Acheulean massive scrapers of Gesher Benot Ya'aqov-a product of the biface chaîne opératoire

The presence of large scrapers has been reported from Acheulean sites worldwide but they are rarely described in detail. At Gesher Benot Ya'aqov (GBY), a similar group of artifacts, named here "massive scrapers," was identified as a significant component of the lithic assemblage. In this paper, we define and describe this Acheulean tool type and discuss its size, morphology, and technology. We demonstrate that at GBY these tools were shaped on flakes that were side-products of the reduction sequence to produce bifaces (handaxes and cleavers). We hypothesize that these blanks were rejected as potential bifaces during the knapping sequence but considered suitable for the retouching of massive scrapers, and were set aside for future work. We support our view with data from archaeological finds younger than those of GBY, as well as with evidence from controlled experimental knapping and ethnoarchaeological observations. We then discuss the contribution of this elaborate knapping strategy to our understanding of Lower Paleolithic hominin behavior, particularly in the domains of multifaceted planning and foresight.     

试析中国长江中游地区大型尖状类石器遗存的区域传统

大型尖状类石器在长江中游地区相邻或相近的汉水上游、丹江口库区、三峡地区和澧阳平原等不同区域保存有不同的技术传统。汉中盆地的大型尖状类石器多选自河滩砾石为毛坯直接加工。丹江口库区无论是调查数据还是发掘数据其比例均高于汉中盆地,现有发掘材料来看其大型尖状类石器有稳定的传统,即选自砾石直接单面或两面加工而成,但调查的材料显示存在另外一种传统,即选取砾石生产长度大于10cm的大石片,以大石片为毛坯加工大型尖状类石器。三峡地区古人类在更新世期间似乎不存在有生产大型尖状类石器的传统,为数不多的手镐与当地的砾石砍砸器和石片砍砸器应当为"同质异型"类器物。澧阳平原及周边丘陵区内发现的大型尖状类石器相比于汉中盆地和丹江口库区,发现数量最多,技术传统也最为复杂,至少包括三种不同的技术。大型尖状类石器在不同区域显示不同的技术传统,暗示从中更新世开始长江中游地区可能在一定程度上形成了并不简单的文化关系。     

模拟打制实验及其在丁村角页岩石器研究中的应用

模拟打制是史前考古研究中的重要实验考古方法之一,对于正确认识考古标本的类型和技术、解读当时人类的认知水平和知识积累具有不可取代的作用。本文简要回溯了模拟打制实验的发展史,并评述其应用现状。模拟打制实验在欧美有较长的发展与应用历史,但最终趋向了不同的发展方向。传统的模拟打制实验研究在欧洲得到了更加深入的继承和发展,而美国在上世纪90年代后期逐渐发展起了以定量控制、数理统计为核心的实验方法。本文以近期在山西丁村开展的角页岩模拟打制实验为例,介绍传统的模拟打制实验的基本流程和内容,包括实验的内容设计、实施及记录和分析等。本次实验结果肯定了硬锤锤击技术在丁村角页岩石核剥片和修理中的广泛应用,并在一定程度上否定了以往对使用碰砧法的推测。文章最后对模拟打制实验存在的问题和应用前景作了讨论和展望。     

石制品废片尺寸分布的实验研究:以泥河湾盆地大田洼区域燧石原料为例

石制品废片尺寸分布区间是旧石器时代遗址形成过程研究中常采用的一项衡量指标。20世纪70～80年代,美国印第安纳大学的学者Kathy Schick与Nicholas Toth针对东非肯尼亚Koobi Fora地区旧石器时代早期遗址中常见的石料与石器生产技术,开展了大量的废片尺寸分布实验研究,所产生的数据在国际学术界产生重要影响并得到广泛应用。本文在参考Kathy Schick等实验的基础上,对泥河湾盆地大田洼区域旧石器时代遗址中常见的周家山、东谷坨两类燧石原料进行了废片尺寸分布实验研究,以建立该区域燧石原料的废片尺寸分布模式,为该区域遗址形成过程的研究提供直接的参考数据。实验共计25组,获得废片标本10070件。结果显示,两类燧石原料的废片尺寸分布模式基本一致,整体呈随尺寸增加废片数量比例逐渐降低的单一递减分布特征,其中0.5～1cm的比例最高,1～2cm次之,其他尺寸的比例逐渐降低。本次实验验证了Kathy Schick等获得的实验数据中小于2cm废片占绝对优势的结论,但对小于1cm的废片产品比例存在偏差,原料物理性质可能是实验结果产生偏差的原因。本文实验数据更适合作为对比数据评估泥河...     

Between simplicity and complexity: The knapping flexibility on cobbles at the early Neolithic site of Zengpiyan Cave (12–7 ka), Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region,southern China

The cobble industry in southern Chinese provinces was for a long time called large and simple “chopper-chopping tool tradition,” which persisted from the Early Pleistocene to the Middle Holocene. This recognition is 50% true and 50% false because it does not reflect the entire archaeological reality. On the one hand, the so-called “chopper-chopping tool” category often characterizes or dominates the lithic assemblages; on the other hand, a “chopper” from site A could be different from another “chopper” in site B. This distinction is important since the typological names lost their validity when conducting comparative studies inter- and intra-sites. The cobble tool industry of the Zengpiyan cave site (Guilin City, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China) is an excellent example of this terminological dilemma, which presents some extent of both simplicity and complexity, underestimated in its production strategies. We could also find substantial flexibility between the two ends (simplicity and complexity) during the selection and exploitation of the cobble/pebble blanks. Although chopper-chopping tools are predominant at the site, the variability of their morpho-structures and techno-functional organization indicate that they are not just simple chopper-chopping tools sensu stricto but have their specific characteristics which could not be found in their typological names. In this context, we need to re-evaluate the previously so-called “choppers” in south China with a techno-functional approach before comparing different lithic assemblages. Compared with other contemporary sites, the Zengpiyan technical system is not far from those found in South China and mainland Southeast Asia. For example, it has similarities with the Sonvian phenomenon in northern Vietnam and some other sites in southern China. While very different from the Hoabinhian technocomplex, the Zengpiyan assemblage raises questions about the kinship with other Late Pleistocene lithic facies. Further technological studies on a larger number of sites in these regions are still needed to understand better the prehistoric techno-cultural relationships between the industrial assemblages of southern China and those bordering the Far East.     

郑州老奶奶庙遗址石核类型学初步研究

郑州老奶奶庙遗址是位于东亚大陆腹地嵩山东麓的一个多层连续堆积的晚更新世露天遗址,经过2011-2013年三个年度的发掘揭露出了丰富的石制品、动物化石和用火遗迹,14C年代数据集中分布在距今4.1-4.0万年之间,校正后为距今4.5万年左右。老奶奶庙遗址石核可以分为A类、B类、C类、D类、E类、F类等多种较为稳定的几何组织结构类型,这些几何组织形式是在有计划的操作程式下剥片的结果,而非偶然产生,其中以A类石核最特色。这些特征显示出老奶奶庙遗址石器工业向系统性剥片发展的趋势。     

东北亚楔形细石核模拟剥片实验研究的回顾与展望

旧石器时代晚期东北亚地区涌现出大量细石叶技术遗存,楔形细石核是该技术组合中的重要代表。楔形细石核因为多样的类型、广泛的分布受到学术界的关注,研究者从不同方面对其展开分析,其中模拟剥片实验发挥着关键作用。20世纪80年代以来,多位学者对东北亚地区广泛分布的楔形细石核进行了模拟剥片实验,尝试使用直接打击法、间接打击法、压制法从该类石核上剥制细石叶,设计了多种与剥片工艺配合使用的石核固定方式,还从原料选择策略、石核预制方法等角度展开讨论。本文从选用原料、预制石核、剥片工艺与固定方式等方面对这些实验取得的成果与存在的问题进行了梳理、总结和剖析,并对模拟实验在细石叶技术研究中的作用与发展前景进行分析和展望,以期为相关研究提供信息、启示并起到推动作用。     

How do stone knappers predict and control the outcome of flaking? Implications for understanding early stone tool technology

The aim of the current study was to provide detailed data on the skill at controlling conchoidal fracture, data that may be used to help infer the processes responsible for generating the technological diversity observed in Early Stone Age sites. We conducted an experiment with modern stone knappers with different skill levels and systematically analyzed not only the products of flaking (i.e., detached flakes) but also the intentions prior to flaking, as well as the actions taken to control the shape of a flake through direct hard-hammer percussion. Only modern stone knappers with extensive knapping experience proved capable of predicting and controlling the shape of a flake, which indicated the significant difficulty of controlling the shape of flakes. Evidence was found that knowing the consequence of a strike given to a core at hand requires the acute exploration of the properties of the core and hammerstone to comply with the higher-order relationship among potential platform variables, kinetic energy of the hammerstone at impact, and flake dimension that reflects the constraints of conchoidal fracture. We argue that without this ability, controlling the shape of a flake or the organized débitage of flakes observed in some of the Early Stone Age sites may not have been possible. We further suggest that, given the difficulty and the nature of the skill, the evidence of precise control of conchoidal fracture in the Early Stone Age record may be indicative of the recurrence of a learning situation that allows the transmission of the skill, possibly through providing the opportunities for first-hand experience.     

Early human occupations at the westernmost tip of Eurasia: The lithic industries from Menez–Dregan I (Plouhinec,Finistère,France)

The stratigraphical complex preserved at the site of Menez–Dregan I (Brittany, France) displays an alternating sequence of 17 occupation levels and of 4 marine deposits, between ca. 450 and 150,000 years (stratigraphical units 9a and 3b). The lithic industry retrieved at the site is extremely abundant, with more than 153,000 artefacts over 3 cm in length, as well as millions of knapping debris, and corresponds to a regional facies of the Acheulean, with heavy-duty tools essentially represented by choppers, as well as a few handaxes and cleavers. This paper presents a first synthesis of the data produced for almost 30 years on the site of Menez–Dregan I. The typological study of the entire lithic collection is now complete and allows us to assess the different human occupations that occurred at this site during the Lower Palaeolithic.